U.S. and the Palestinian Cause

By F. Michael Maloof The United States has been a tremendous disappointment to Palestinians who had hoped this country which represents democracy and freedom to the world hasn’t displayed any leadership in resolving the tremendous injustice that Palestinians have faced for more than six generations. And their plight is getting worse, not better. The U.S. position toward Palestinians in attempting just to upgrade their status in the United Nations recently shows how much U.S. policy is subservient to “Israeli” interests. The U.S. stance in objecting to this effort blatantly revealed a hypocrisy in U.S. policy of talking about Palestinian rights on the one hand but undermining and vehemently objecting to their efforts to gain the recognition they have long deserved. Unfortunately, the recent Palestinian effort to seek their just recognition at the U.N. evoked immediate cries from “Israeli” supporters in Congress to cut off all U.S. financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority. There now exists a freeze by Jewish congressmen and congresswomen who are in key positions of leadership on important committees which halted further funding. Their ranting against the Palestinians showed just how much in lockstep the U.S. Congress is with “Israel” and certainly the control that the Zionists have over the U.S. Congress. For Palestinians, the Arab Spring is passing them by, and that is just wrong. While the U.S. has now focused just on the U.N. recognition issue, it has ignored the Palestinian state issue and how “Israelis” continue with settlement construction. U.S. policymakers also have been silent on the way “Israeli” settlers treat Palestinians by destroying their property including valuable olive and fig trees which constitute the livelihood for countless Palestinians, or forcing defenseless Palestinians from their own property at gunpoint, or just blowing up their houses altogether. There are numerous examples of these events occurring daily but remain largely ignored by the regular U.S. media which also is subject to major Jewish influence. Between the Congress and the media, it further underscores the headlock Israel has on almost all facets of U.S. policy formulation, including America’s financial sector. In addition, “Israeli” action against Palestinians is a clear demonstration and total disregard for United Nations resolutions, such as UNSCR 242 forbidding expansion by military force, which the “Israelis” do with impunity and virtually on a daily basis. The U.S. insists that any peace settlement needs to be worked out bilaterally between “Israel” and the Palestinians. However, some 30 years of negotiations and the way in which “Israeli” treatment of Palestinians continues without challenge have shown that this approach just hasn’t worked. It is especially noticeable as the Zionists say they want to negotiate a peace settlement with the Palestinians and then virtually in the next breath announce the construction of thousands of settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem, making any notion of a bilateral approach simply unworkable. Given the historical record of such “Israeli” double-speak, it now is clear that the “Israelis” have no intention of working out a bilateral settlement with the Palestinians because of their thirst for what they admit is “Lebensraum,” over more “living space to expand. For the “Israelis,” that means taking over more Palestinian lands, knowing that neither the United States nor any other country will put a stop to it. The Israelis started out slowly but, given the lack of serious objection or any U.S. sanctions imposed against the “Israelis’ for such behavior, the Zionists believe the lack of any objection allows them to go all out with constructing more settlements on Palestinians lands. What is diabolical about this is that “Lebensraum” formed the basis of a policy of the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler against the Jews in confiscating their properties in Germany and German-held territories. It represented a means by which the Third Reich took over lands and subjugated its peoples to what amounted to slavery. Such invasions led to the start of World War II. Just as the world has condemned such a racist, hatred-filled policy since then toward the Jews, no less should be directed toward how the Zionists in power now treat the Palestinians living in the occupied territories and bombing and occupying their lands with impunity. Yet, the U.S. government doesn’t react to such an approach which even American Jews should be rebelling against because of those World War II memories. However, they, too, are silent. In speaking out about the way in which Palestinians are treated, it is apparent that it represents a conflict in U.S. policy toward “Israel.” By its silence, the U.S. government thereby gives “Israeli’ supporters in Congress more license to confront the administration on any issue that shows any concession toward Palestinians, even if the effect is minimal. However, that silence is deafening. Unfortunately, other western countries also haven’t shown any courage or leadership to call the Israelis on such treatment and remind them that not in the too distant past their families were similarly treated by the Nazis, an event which led to the emotional appeal back in 1948 to create the Zionist state. Palestinians are in the same position today with the “Israelis” but the moral leadership expected from other democracies in the world, especially the United States, is absent. The inability of the United States to show that moral leadership to right the wrongs of an oppressed people as the Palestinians suggests that America also speaks out of both ends of its mouth when it expresses such values but ignores those appeals. The world has witnessed this in the case of the Arab Spring in which the U.S. continued to back autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa against demonstrators’ demands for democracy and justice. It now is clear that you can’t mistrust the United States enough when it comes to being that moral compass to do what is right by all peoples, including Palestinians. F. Michael Maloof is a former senior security policy analyst in the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense.

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